The Vogue Coat- Actual Progress?!?

Here is a post where I lamented my lack of progress on my vintage Vogue 775. It chronicles the years that have passed since I bought that beautiful pattern at an estate sale in Oregon. The wool came from Mood in New York later and I managed to do a muslin and cut and underline all of the pieces before we moved to Chicago, ahem, two and a half years ago. 

Finally, a week or so before Thanksgiving, I finally started sewing the coat together. Having made a muslin, it came together quickly and easily. 

 Sorry for the mediocre phone pictures, but I was just taking them to show my mom my progress. I have the shell completed, but I am currently debating the addition of the cuffs and the double collar. I think they may look a tad costumey. That will be for a later post.

 It has that cool button detail where the buttons make an inverted V, but I still need to find 15 buttons to do that. I saw these as Jo-Ann and I might consider them. They are made to look like vintage brass buttons and are metal. I think they would maybe look nice with the blue.

Hopefully I will find some buttons and a lining that I like and maybe finish this coat THIS WINTER!

 Whoo hoo!

A little coat progress- underlining complete!

I must admit, cutting out the wool was stressful. It all fit, and I made no mistakes because I took my time. The front pieces were the worst, because they are gigantic- the front is the bodice and skirt and sleeve all in one piece. So as I was distracted laying it out singly and cutting it twice, I look up to see my "helper" helping stink up a hundred-some dollars of wool. What a brat! Look at him studiously ignoring me!

All the pictures are a little dark, since it's night. The light blue is the flannel underlining, the dark blue is my wool.
It worked out perfectly, since I now have each piece with no marks on the wool, and all of the marks on the flannel in marker. The pattern has about ten million marks you need to transfer: darts, slits, seam allowances that change on a whim, button placement for 15 buttons, etc. I basted it on the machine, of course! I spend all my patience on 6th graders at school; I have no patience for slow sewing!
This is the interfacing I am going to use. It is Pellon Shape-Flex, a woven fusible one made from cotton. I am pleased. My sample gave it nice bit of stiffness, but not too much. You do have to fuse it with a damp cloth, but that's fine.
The coat is going to be super warm! It still has nice, heavy drape and isn't really all that bulky at all. I'm excited!

My next project, and second to last January goal: making a pair of gloves. The pattern is the glove I deconstructed and traced; the fabric is an eggplant/aubergine purple. It's pretty- the light is bad.
Don't forget to enter the giveaway, if you haven't already! I will be drawing names tomorrow or Thursday night!

Wool for my coat

I chose the blue!

While the burgundy and mauve were beautiful together, I wasn't sure. The textures of the two wools were different, which I think would bother me a little. Plus, the coat will look very retro and perhaps burgundy would make it look old-fashioned. I think the blue is more modern.
Plus the blues have the exact same texture, which pleases the perfectionist in me.

My question for you:

Should I interline this coat in flannel? It will be a long coat, which is more for winter. The wool is medium weight, so it's not very heavy. Plus, we won't live in New Orleans forever, so it will be my investment coat. I will have it forever.

P.S. Here is my fabric for my classroom tablecloths. Hot pink and apple green. I bought them on two separate trips to Jo-Ann's to use two 40% off coupons.
Hopefully I will be able to carve out a little time each day to sew and make some progress. I have the black skirt, my cape, my tablecloth and the pattern cut out and fabric purchased for another skirt! I refuse to have UFOs!

Vogue Coat colors

NY was fun. We went to the Met and I took hundreds of pictures of artifacts to use in my Powerpoints for World History. I especially liked this Greek bird-woman. With a mullet!

We ate pizza and Senegalese food, we went to the Statue of Liberty (at my insistence), walked miles, I saw the great exhibit on American fashion in Brooklyn, saw Andrew's fam and a friend from college, went to Long Island and most importantly----

got my fabric at Mood!

Remember my pattern...

Guess which color combination I chose! Guess! The darker shade for the coat and the lighter for the contrasting cuffs and collar....

For now, I will leave you hanging.....

and go try to learn to use my ruffling foot...

Vogue 775 Muslin- the winter coat

Here you can see how the front is kimono sleeve, but the back is a set-in sleeve, with a dart going straight down the center.

Here is the waist shaping, since the front is one giant piece, with this little addition.
The front, which fits fine ( I was too lazy to put on a bra)
The back fits perfectly! Still has some ease, even with my arms crossed. Ignore the collar that I didn't baste down.
Doesn't the back look nice?
Use your imagination, with it pressed, in wool, it will look amazing...
Poppin my collar, lol.
So really, the only changes I made was to shorten the bodice by 1 inch and the skirt by about 3-4 inches.

My design changes will be adding 2-3 inches to make it have long sleeves, and to change the construction of the cuffs and collar. I hate when it calls for folded under seams- I know they're there! So I will cut doubles for all of that and fold the seams to the inside. Oh and make facings for the sleeves, so that I can wear the cuffs turned up or down with no visible seams!

It's going to be amazing! Sharpies and muslin- who knew how productive this could be? Now I feel confident spending a bit of money on really nice wool!

Vogue 755 Muslin... in progress

You could safely say I am obsessed with this pattern. I love it. It will be the most beautiful coat in the world.

Fortunately, I own it already. It was my best 25 cent buy at that estate sale. I can't find it on the internet anywhere for sale, so who knows how much it goes for.

I oh so carefully pressed the pieces, and they are all there. It made me nervous- what if I tear one? (duh, tape it.) I'm IN LOVE, I can't be logical!

I laid out the muslin on the floor and threatened Andrew and the dog with violence if they came anywhere near my pattern. They cowered in fear.

Not really, it sounded dramatic.

Then I carefully cut them all out. Man it used an absolute freeking sheet ton of fabric. Sheet. It might be thwarting my plans of owning a cashmere coat. Grr. The envelope says 4 yards of 54 inch fabric, and I think it's telling the truth. yikes.

So, I am making a real muslin out of muslin and I am going to fit it perfectly using my Kenneth King guidelines in my Threads magazines my mommy bought me.

And it will be beautiful.

And then I will pick it all apart and lay it out again to see if I really need 4 yards!!! Eek.

PS- Due to my shortness, I usually can get away with buying much less. Like my halter top and pants wanted 4 yards and I bought 3 and it was fine. Vogue 755 has weird shaped pieces, so we shall see.

And then I will go to New York and buy the most lovely fabric ever envisioned for my beautiful (future) coat.

Oh, and did I mention it's an unprinted pattern? Luckily, it'll be the second one I've done, but tomorrow's sewing will be transferring all the dots and squares onto my muslin in pen.

Wish me one billion buckets of luck!!!